easy quick homemade white bread
#214041 - 09/17/05 01:34 PM
|
|
|
|
|
jen1013
Reged: 05/06/05
Posts: 1322
Loc: the wabe
|
|
|
I miss cooking!  But I haven't really been stomaching much but bread ... so thought I'd post my favorite bread recipe that I have been eating all week. This is what got me started on homemade yeast breads -- it's really easy and is a lot quicker to prepare than most breads. It has a nice soft crumb and slices firmly for sandwiches. Buy a cheap candy thermometer for $2 to check water temperature.
Ingredients:
7 cups white flour, plus an extra 4 T or so for luck
2 cups warm water, approx 110 degrees
2 packages yeast, or equivalent (I use 4 1/2 t Red Star)
1 t salt
3 t sugar
Spray two loaf pans with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside.
Measure flour into stainless steel bowl. Mix in salt. Throw it in the oven and turn on oven to ~180 degrees.
In separate glass bowl, mix sugar and yeast. Add approx 1/2 cup of the water and let proof until foamy -- around 5 minutes.
Take bowl out of oven. Flour should be warmed. Make a well in the bowl and pour in the rest of the water and the yeast mixture. Mix with a spoon until dough starts to form. Knead for 10 minutes by hand or w/ stand mixer & dough hook. Dough should eventually be lovely and elastic-y and smooth under your fingers.
Divide dough into two equal portions. Shape into loaf and glop into loaf pans. Turn on oven to 350. Cover loaves with a clean cloth or paper towel and let rise until approx one inch above the top of the loaf pan. Usually this takes about 30-40 minutes, less if the kitchen is warm, more if the kitchen is cold.
Bake loaves at 350 for 35-40 minutes. Turn it out of the pan and pat the bottom gently with the palm of your hand -- if it sounds "hollow", it's done. (I always thought that sounded weird, but trust me, when you feel it, you'll know immediately what it means.) I like my bread a little softer, so I generally bake around 35 minutes.
Turn out of pan onto wire rack. If your wire racks are buried at the bottom of a stack of cookie sheets like mine, turn them onto plates instead. Let cool for several minutes before slicing.
Cook's notes -- I am not too sure what warming the flour does, but it turns out way better when I do. It seems to mix better and the bread is softer. Make sure you don't let it rise too long -- you'll start to get air pockets and your bread won't be nice and firm.
--------------------
jen
"It's one of the most serious things that can possibly happen to one in a battle -- to get one's head cut off." -- LC
Print
Remind Me
Notify Moderator
|
|
|
What's the purpose of putting the flour in the oven? Will it turn out the same way if I skip this step? I don't have a metal bowl.
Print
Remind Me
Notify Moderator
|
|
|
like I said in the recipe, I'm not positive what this does do -- I've skipped it before, but the bread doesn't seem to turn out as well. I'm not sure why. I think also that having the flour warm will make it rise faster. Not that the bread will turn out bad -- as I recall the main thing is that it just doesn't seem quite as soft. Of course this could be a total coincidence and warming the flour is nothing but superstition!
If you have glass, check the bottom of the bowl. Some of them say they're oven-safe up to 350 degrees or so -- I think most of my Pyrex is.
--------------------
jen
"It's one of the most serious things that can possibly happen to one in a battle -- to get one's head cut off." -- LC
Print
Remind Me
Notify Moderator
|
|
|
Hello,
I've tried your recipe twice it really didn't work both times. First I thought I had warmed the water too much and killed the yeast. Then I tried it today, the yeast was all nice and foamy but I ended up with a hard dough that I can't even knead and tons of lose flour that I can't even knead into the dough. It's really a mystery to me since I've made my own bread with Kamut, Integral and Rye flours and they always turned out fine. Are you sure your proportions are correct? Are you sure I should simply use white flour and not bread flour for example?
Thanks for your help, for the recipe does sound yummy and I'd really like to make my own bread again.
Sophie
Print
Remind Me
Notify Moderator
|
|
|
There aren't a lot of reviews here, so I figured I'll post my own.
I only have one loaf pan so I halved the recipe, which seemed fine except the dough was a little dry. I tried to use my Kitchenaid Stand Mixer with the dough hook, and I definitely over mixed. I was mistaken in thinking that I had to use the mixer the same ten minutes as if I was kneading the dough myself. I then looked online and found I was only supposed to do it about 2 minutes or so. So my dough was overworked and the bread is very dense, but I chalk that up to user error. The crust is VERY hard, which is probably also from my error. The taste is pretty good, despite the texture, and I will be trying this again hoping for better results. As for this batch, I might turn it into bread crumbs.
--------------------
Michelle
Print
Remind Me
Notify Moderator
|
Posts
